Full Moon Pilgrimage

Hello All,

After a simple morning of helping Kumari yesterday, we took our afternoon rest. When I woke up Kumari rushed to me with the news that the full moon walk was that night, not the next day as we believed. On our calendar it showed the full moon being on the seventh, but apparently it started the night of the sixth and went until the seventh, so the walk was occurring that evening. I went onto the terrace to get a view of the main road in the distance; it was swarmed with people starting the pilgrimage.

Every full moon people come from across southern India to walk around the mountain that Tiruvannamalai is at the base of. They all walk to the front of the main temple, and from there their journey begins. It is believed that all of your thoughts and prayers that you make while circling the mountain will come true.

I immediately went to bathe, which is necessary before making the pilgrimage. Priya, Kartik, Pown, and Maha also got ready. Xavier could not make it out of bed, so Kumari needed to stay home with him. She made me promise to pray for him while making the journey. We all dressed in our best, and at 6:30 we finally left the house barefoot, as is tradition. We passed by the huge field down the road, which was being used as a makeshift bus station for all the people entering Tiru from states far and wide. We hadn’t even reached the road on which the actual trek occurred, but already we found ourselves stuck in a crowd. A very young girl came and started talking to me. She was pushing against my leg while pointing at things in the distance and speaking in broken English. I quickly realized that she was trying to steal from me, and stuffed my hands in my pocket discreetly. In the middle of her sentence she looked down, saw my now protected pockets, and without finishing her thought she disappeared.

We finally reached the front of the temple which was stuffed with people. It was beautifully decorated with flashing colored lights. People stopped in front of it to place their hands over their heads and show their respect. It took twenty hot and crammed minutes to work our way out of the crowd, and so our spiritual journey began. The roads we lined with little makeshift shops. People cooked prasad and handed it out for free, while others made more complicated dishes which you could buy. There were men carving figurines out of whatever they could get their hands on, and snake charmers dazzling the crowds with their bravery. Cows roamed the street, and herds of people surrounded them trying to place a hand on its sacred body and feed it holy leaves that were sold on every corner. Also lining the street were beggars, many of whom were deformed or missing limbs. They tried their hardest to make eye contact with people as they passed, and some of the limbless ones would roll around in the center of the road groaning and yelling; it was very disturbing and upsetting to pass by. As we left the main part of town it got a little quieter and a lot darker. I was terrified of loosing my group in the dimly lit crowd.

We had not eaten before we left, so about an hour into it we bought newspaper cones full of a cherry like fruit. Priya did not know its English name. The seller poured salt over the fruit before handing it to us; they love mixing sweet and salty here, a combination that I do not particularly enjoy. I washed my fruit in my water, and ate. I though the pit would be small and hard, like a cherry, but when I popped one in my mouth I found the flesh to be quite shallow, and the soft seed broke open in my mouth releasing an awful taste. I spit the pit out, but it left a strange coating in my mouth, which took an hour or so to finally leave. Next we stopped for fresh “sweet” coconut (which is cut from the tree still green and soft, not the brown ones you typically think of), which was being sold everywhere. You would pick out the large green fruit that you wanted and the person would chop off the top and stick a straw in it. It was not what I expected. It was a little salty, a little sweet, and very warm; overall I was very disappointed and a little grossed out. Everyone around me finished theirs quickly, so I choked the rest of it down, it was so full. Once you finished drinking you handed the empty shell to the man and he cut it open and scraped out the jelly like flesh. The flesh was just as bad; on top of having no flavor, the texture left much to be desired.

After our snack I started paying attention to those traveling around me. People of every age, position, and religion were making the journey. I saw Muslim men and women walking and praying next to Hindus. Christians stopped at crosses to pray, while Hindus prayed in front of shrines. The pilgrimage is all about faith, and I was amazed to see that it applied to all religions. Some men ran the whole thing in large panting groups. Certain holy men walked very slowly, heel toe heel toe. Other groups of religious men would chant or sing and play instruments. Others carried radios, some if which played spiritual music while others played strange Tamil renditions of early 90’s American pop. Even the crippled and sick made the journey. One boy limped past me; the whole top of his right foot was a gaping, oozing, puss filled sore.

Around 10:00, we decided to stop for dinner and a rest. We found a shack type place that was serving people and entered. We seated ourselves and waited to be served. There was a lot of whispering on the building, and Priya told me that they didn’t want to serve us because of me. Until this point people have always been nice towards me, and were usually curious. Some showed indifference, but never have I felt unwanted until this point. Pown went and pulled a server to our table to take our order. She grumbled and served us brown, awful smelling water. We waited for a while and watched others come in after as and get food right away. Pown went and talked to the head server again, and she reluctantly brought us food. I had ordered two parratas, and they were very small, certainly not big enough to make a full dinner, but I refused to order more despite Priya’s protests. While sitting and eating, the plastic chair I was sitting in literally crumbled beneath me, drawing even more unwanted attention. No one came to help us, so we brushed the chair until a pile and took another one from the table beside us. The place was very dirty, and almost immediately after eating I could feel my bowels protesting. The woman came to clear our water, which none of us drank, and spilled a whole cup on my lap. She didn’t say anything or even look at me after it happened, and I just sat there pretending not to be phased by the incident or how I was being treated. We were severely over charged, and I felt bad because I knew it was because of me, so I paid for dinner and left. The meal both emotionally and physically put a damper on the trek for me, despite trying my hardest to not let it get to me. But just to reiterate, this was only one incident, the rest of my time here I have been treated very well by everyone.

We continued the journey, and waves of immense pain spread through my lower bowels off and on for the rest of the time. Priya asked if I would like to use a public restroom that we passed, but the thought of paying to use a disgusting hole in the ground without toilet paper seemed worse than waiting until we got back home.

We stopped at one temple after eating. There were literally hundreds of Hindu temples and shrines along the way, but this particular temple was dedicated to Priya’s favorite god, so we entered. It was small and clean and beautiful. Sadly, I don’t remember the name of the god, he was not one that I have ever seen before and the name was not recognizable to me. We also stopped to have our fortunes told. Priya went first and then it was my turn. Priya told him my full name, which he repeated along with some words in Tamil. A colorful bird then popped out of this little box and pulled a tattered envelope out of a stack. The man pulled the card out of it and unfolded it. All the strangers around me gasped and started whispering to each other, I had no idea what the card meant but apparently it was very good. The man started talking in Tamil, and when I asked Priya what he was saying, but she shushed me. Afterwards she explained my fortune to me, and hers as well.

At eleven we finally came out of the unpopulated area and entered town again. A half an hour later we made it home. It was exactly a five hour journey, and my bare feet would not have been able to handle another step (my intestines could not have handled it either). After talking to Kumari about the trip, I fell into bed and slept the best I have slept since being here.

I was thinking earlier today about all the unbelievable experiences I have had that I never thought would happen, and taking a five hour barefoot pilgrimage around a sacred Indian mountain is certainly on that list.

Peace,
Robby

The mountain around which we orbited. This picture does not capture its full size, or the fact that all the land around it is completely flat. I took this picture as we approached the makeshift bus station, and sadly it is the only one from the whole journey. I was afraid of loosing my camera, plus it was very dark and I didn't want to draw attention with a flash.